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Thursday, July 7, 2011

Sour Cherry Crumb Cake

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...Fruits and berries that are grown in our area are late to market this year. Local strawberries began to appear in farm stands and green markets about 2 weeks ago, but they are still not prime. Each year, I play my own version of Russian roulette, and, to insure the most intense flavor, I postpone buying flats of them for as long as I possibly can. A few years back, I outsmarted myself and we ended up with no berries at all for the freezer or canning kettle. I must be a gambler at heart, because I've postponed going long in berries again this year. The upside to all of this is, that while I'm waiting for strawberries, I've been working on recipes that use sweet or sour cherries. Now, in keeping with my policy of complete disclosure, I must tell you these are not Oregon cherries. They are imported from Washington state to fill market shelves, and, while they are immigrants, they are especially delicious this year. The simple snack cake that I'm featuring today comes from a recipe I've adapted from Martha Stewart's website. The cake is really easy to make and the cherries give it a unique flavor. While I serve this for brunch, it would be a great cake for morning meetings where you would like to serve something new. The cake can be made with fresh or frozen berries. If you use frozen berries, they must be defrosted and drained before they are added to the cake batter. This is a great dessert for those who like their treats barely sweet. Here's the recipe.

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-inch square baking dish, and dust with flour, tapping out excess.
2) To make topping: Stir together butter, flour, sugars, salt, and cinnamon. Set aside.
3) To make cakes: Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. With a mixer, cream butter and granulated sugar in another bowl until pale and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla and almond extract. Working in alternating batches, add flour mixture and buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat until just combined. Pour into prepared pan, and smooth with an offset spatula. Dot top with cherries, and sprinkle with crumb topping. Bake until golden and a tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 1 hour. Let cool before cutting. Yield: 9 servings.

Cook's Note: Frozen cherries, thawed and drained, may be substituted for fresh cherries.

I love fresh cherries more than life itself, but how do you pit the darn things? Any tips? I have seen several tempting recipes lately but I just can't bear the thought of fiddling with all the tiny pits and mess, so I end up eating my cherries out of hand most of the time. This looks so great it will probably be worth the effort, though. I love the addition of almond extract.

I laughed when I read your post, because I did the same thing this year with strawberries. I kept thinking they'd get better, and before I knew it, they were gone! :(This cake looks spectacular. I almost never bake with cherries because they're so delicious fresh, it seems a shame to 'adulterate' them. But this looks wonderful.

Oh, this does sound like a lovely dessert. I look forward to our short sour cherry season every year and stock up as much as I can at the farmer's market for pies, cobblers...and things like this cake!

In my area strawberries are in full bloom and can be found everywhere, whereas cherries are few and far between. I picked up a basket of cherries at a local farm not too long ago and they were terrible. Russian Roulette indeed :). The cake looks fantastic. I love anything that goes well with a cup of coffee, and there's something about sour cherry that works especially well :).

Yummy, your sour cherry crumb cake looks devine! In my area we are flooded with strawberries this season. The local farmers market are loaded down with fresh vegi's, and fruits. I guess it is different in many areas. I love your blog, and I did subscribe so I don't miss any posts :)

Though I like my treats very sweet, I love crumb cake, and this looks and sounds fantastic! If only this was sitting on my counter ready to eat when I get home from work. I'll cross my fingers and maybe it will magically appear. ;)

A friend is bringing me fresh Michigan cherries tomorrow - they're not sour - but - if I can resists just gobbling them up (which I have been doing with quarts and quarts of MN strawberries) I will make this. I don't love my sweets very sweet!

I just bought some cherries at the store yesterday. I assume I can use sweet or sour in this? I have to admit I didn't realize there were different types of cherries! Looks super yummy..love a good crumb cake.

Cherries seem to be rare and very expensive this year, unfortuntely, but I have a very similar recipe sitting in my kitchen waiting to be made. I love cherries and I'd pay the extra cost for a slice of a cake like this.

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